Friday October 7, 2011
One of my favorite reads is Via published by AAA. The magazine features destinations to consider, things to do and things to eat. I especially like the things to eat! I've been a member of AAA since forever and have been glad about that. One of the few things I find where you still get your money's worth. One thing I find annoying though. For some reason my card says that I have been a member since 1911 and absolutely no one has ever complemented me on how good I look for my age!
In the Fall issue I noticed an article on pies and read with gusto. Great luck; one of the mentioned eateries was Loula's Cafe in Whitefish and they were touting the peach and huckleberry pie.
When I fist moved to Montana people would speak of huckleberries with such reverence I thought they had taken leave of their senses. I could not imagine how a berry fruit could deserve such adoration. That was, of course, before I tasted them. Now I love them so much I coined the name Montana Caviar.
I'll never forget my first encounter. Koty and I were on our way to hike the Terriault Pass and came across and elderly gentleman up on the side of the mountain foraging around in the bushes with a small pail in hand. I could not restrain myself so I stopped and climbed up the bank to ask what he was doing. He told me he was picking huckleberries and asked if I would like to try some. From that first mouthwatering bite it was clear what all the todo was about. The gentleman even offered Koty a handful. He loved them too and Koty is a very finicky eater. It was quite generous of this stranger because those berries are tiny and it takes forever to get a even a small pail of those delicious nuggets.
When I read of Loula's I knew I had to go down to Whitefish and try a slice. I called my sidekick Mona and we made a plan to go down to Whitefish and today we did just that. Fortunately, I had called ahead to enquire about the availability and was told that around 11:00 to 11:30 was a good time. We arrived right on schedule and a good thing too! There were exactly two pieces of pie remaining.
Well, all I can say is there was no disappointment, the pie was delicious. The peach huckleberry combination was all I had dreamed and the crust was outstanding. I always judge a pie maker by its crust. You can mess up the greatest filling with a lousy crust. I can't tell you what it cost as I did not see the slice price and my chum picked up the tab. You can also order the whole pie. Now there's a decadent idea!
I'd not been to this cafe before so I scanned the menu and it appeared overall reasonable. I noticed what looked like a very nice selection of hamburgers and I'm a fool for hamburgers. I think I will have to return to try some of their other fare. I would recommend you try Loula's if you should find yourself in Whitefish, Montana. And, you will most assuredly find yourself there if you are coming to Glacier National Park.
If you want to give it a go Loula's is located at 300 Second Street E. The entrance is right on 93 and the cafe is located downstairs. The phone number is (406) 862-5614. If you're looking for the huckleberry pie you may want to call ahead.
©Kinsey Barnard
Showing posts with label AAA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AAA. Show all posts
09 October 2011
26 July 2011
Wild Weather - Clementine Comes Home
Monday July 25, 2011
Between my new solar setup and my RV I'm learning a lot about batteries these days.
Last week I took Clementine, (Clementine and Shadow Photo) , out for her first spin of the season. Usually, I've already been out for a week or two trip by this time but construction projects and weather have skunked me but good. It's was pretty much of a coast down the mountain so I didn't realize something was wrong until I pulled out onto the highway. Clementine has a Mercedes turbo charged diesel and usually goes lickety split but this time she went nowhere with metal to the metal. I stopped at a local mechanics but he didn't have a clue what to do so I ended up having to have her towed to Whitefish. Thanks goodness I have AAA. This one tow saved me way more than the annual fee.
I've always thought if a battery was bad it was dead. I also thought that the battery just started your engine. Apparently, I was wrong on both counts. Clem started but the battery was bad. Because it was bad it was not sending enough power out to operate the engines electronics so Clem just said phooey and quit powering. The battery and diagnostics cost almost $300. Ouch!
One of the nice things about having a tow car, when you are solo, you can send the RV off and then go get it without having to put someone else out hauling you to where you need to pick it up. Shadow is my little Ford Focus that I use.
I spent the morning running errands in Clem and she purred like a kitten. When I returned to the dealership they helped hook up Shadow and I was on my way. Clem was just as happy pulling Shadow as if she wasn't there. This was the first time I had ever been into Don K's in Whitefish. They only recently bought the Dodge dealership and can work of the Sprinter. I was very favorably impressed. Back in 2009, on my way to Holland Lake, I had a very unpleasant experience with the dealership Don K bot the Dodge franchise from Kari Dodge and wasn't ever going back there again.
I had thought I might spend a night in Whitefish and get Clem de-winterized at an RV park. Boy am I glad I didn't. At 8:30 am when I left for the Flathead it was dark and cloudy. By the time I returned, around 5:30 it was pretty warm and partly cloudy. It took me about an hour to unhook Shadow and get Clem buttoned up. Around 7:00 pm it started to darken with thunder rumbling in the distance. By 9:00 the skies simply unloaded. At first I just heard the thunder start building but then I could hear this continuous rumble and couldn't figure out what it was. It was kind of like the sound of a jet. I found out soon enough what it was as hail began pounding down the size of marbles. I guess because it was relatively warm, around 65 degrees, the hail started to melt immediately. As I stood out on the deck watching I noticed the water was shooting nearly a foot out of the drain spout. I've never seen anything like it.
With all the torn up ground from recent construction I feared for my driveway which is gravel. Sure enough the water had come down with such force everything was underwater and running right down the driveway. I donned by rain gear and pelleted by hail I worked furiously to channel the water off the drive. If I hadn't been here to take immediate corrective action I cringe at the thought of what might have come home to. As it was I was ought until 10:00pm trying to keep things from total wash out. I was able to do a pretty good job and keep the wash out to a minimum. In the middle of the night the rain started up again and all I could do was cross my fingers.
I don't know what's going on with the weather but it sure seems to be extreme all over the planet.
©Kinsey Barnard
Between my new solar setup and my RV I'm learning a lot about batteries these days.
Last week I took Clementine, (Clementine and Shadow Photo) , out for her first spin of the season. Usually, I've already been out for a week or two trip by this time but construction projects and weather have skunked me but good. It's was pretty much of a coast down the mountain so I didn't realize something was wrong until I pulled out onto the highway. Clementine has a Mercedes turbo charged diesel and usually goes lickety split but this time she went nowhere with metal to the metal. I stopped at a local mechanics but he didn't have a clue what to do so I ended up having to have her towed to Whitefish. Thanks goodness I have AAA. This one tow saved me way more than the annual fee.
I've always thought if a battery was bad it was dead. I also thought that the battery just started your engine. Apparently, I was wrong on both counts. Clem started but the battery was bad. Because it was bad it was not sending enough power out to operate the engines electronics so Clem just said phooey and quit powering. The battery and diagnostics cost almost $300. Ouch!
One of the nice things about having a tow car, when you are solo, you can send the RV off and then go get it without having to put someone else out hauling you to where you need to pick it up. Shadow is my little Ford Focus that I use.
I spent the morning running errands in Clem and she purred like a kitten. When I returned to the dealership they helped hook up Shadow and I was on my way. Clem was just as happy pulling Shadow as if she wasn't there. This was the first time I had ever been into Don K's in Whitefish. They only recently bought the Dodge dealership and can work of the Sprinter. I was very favorably impressed. Back in 2009, on my way to Holland Lake, I had a very unpleasant experience with the dealership Don K bot the Dodge franchise from Kari Dodge and wasn't ever going back there again.
I had thought I might spend a night in Whitefish and get Clem de-winterized at an RV park. Boy am I glad I didn't. At 8:30 am when I left for the Flathead it was dark and cloudy. By the time I returned, around 5:30 it was pretty warm and partly cloudy. It took me about an hour to unhook Shadow and get Clem buttoned up. Around 7:00 pm it started to darken with thunder rumbling in the distance. By 9:00 the skies simply unloaded. At first I just heard the thunder start building but then I could hear this continuous rumble and couldn't figure out what it was. It was kind of like the sound of a jet. I found out soon enough what it was as hail began pounding down the size of marbles. I guess because it was relatively warm, around 65 degrees, the hail started to melt immediately. As I stood out on the deck watching I noticed the water was shooting nearly a foot out of the drain spout. I've never seen anything like it.
With all the torn up ground from recent construction I feared for my driveway which is gravel. Sure enough the water had come down with such force everything was underwater and running right down the driveway. I donned by rain gear and pelleted by hail I worked furiously to channel the water off the drive. If I hadn't been here to take immediate corrective action I cringe at the thought of what might have come home to. As it was I was ought until 10:00pm trying to keep things from total wash out. I was able to do a pretty good job and keep the wash out to a minimum. In the middle of the night the rain started up again and all I could do was cross my fingers.
I don't know what's going on with the weather but it sure seems to be extreme all over the planet.
©Kinsey Barnard
25 September 2007
LAKE LOUISE TO JASPER
 |
| Bow Lake |
September 06, 2007
We got up bright and early to be on our way to Jasper. But, Shadow did it to us again. This time the battery was dead. At first, mom thought it was because she had left the key in the unlocked position, even though she had disconnected everything else. We looked all over the park for help but no one was awake. We finally found one big bus with some lights on and knocked. A lady appeared in her robe. We were very sorry to disturb her. In the brief conversation it dawned on mom that there was nothing wrong with Clementine so we could drive to a gas station, which we did. Only problem was they didn’t do anything but sell gas. They sent us off to an auto mechanic but when we got there we found it had gone out of business. We spied some kind of Canadian government office and went in. They weren’t allowed to jump batteries but let us use the phone to call AAA. The nearest tow company was in Banff so we waited around for an hour and a half. It took the guy exactly 20 seconds to start Shadow with a portable battery charger. Sheesh! We should have one of those things. We were finally off at 10:30. That little adventure cost us about two hours.
After mom got done beating herself up for being so stupid she realized that probably the reason the battery went dead was because we hadn’t driven Shadow for several weeks and then we hooked that braking thing up and it just sapped what was left of the juice. It may explain the trouble we had yesterday. The battery was just giving up.
It’s a beautiful drive up the up the Ice Fields Parkway to Jasper. Many say it's the most beautiful drive in the world and I certainly wouldn't argue. But, it was cloudy and rainy most all of the way. We made a quick stop at Bow Lake and an even quicker stop at the Columbia Ice Fields. That old glacier is getting very tired looking and is not the least bit photogenic. We stopped long enough to start Shadow and let her run ten minutes just in case.
We pulled in to the Whistler campground in Jasper at about 2:30 pm. Thank goodness we had reservations because the place was sold out except for dry camping sites. We got a really nice spot. Mom got us all set up in about an hour and we took off for a hike. We drove up 16 to the Maligne Lake turnoff and went to the “sixth bridge” trail which is at the confluence of the Athabasca and Maligne rivers. There are number of pretty little trails to follow in this general area. We took #7, which follows the Maligne.
After a couple of hours of walking we called it a day. Before going to our campsite we went to check out the other side of the campground and found a great big old bull elk and a couple of cows. Mom, naturally, pulled out her trusty Nikon and fired off a few shots!
That was our day, this day. Looking forward to tomorrow. I know I’m going to get to hike!
Until next time….
Lakota Sunrise
©KinseyBarnard
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